Author: arm38

New tasks for summer

arm38 Undergraduate Research, Updates

Hi everyone, it’s Ally! I figured it was time for a blog post – it’s been a while since my last post and a lot has changed recently. First, COVID-19 has impacted our work these past few months. Like many others, Hailley and I have been working from home, navigating Zoom, and creating new, virtual techniques to keep this project moving. Fortunately, this project has continued fairly smoothly online. We completed our last four interviews via Zoom and consistently have Zoom meetings to stay on track. We also had some fascinating conversations with interviewees about how COVID-19 has affected their student engagement opportunities. We’re definitely eager to tie those student perspectives into our manuscripts moving forward.

Our project is also facing changes outside of COVID-19. Now that our interviews are complete and coding is almost finished, it’s time to start analyzing our results and decide how to present this information. Hailley and I decided to first focus on creating a research report for the Penn State Student Engagement Network. This report will include the demographics of our sample, the methods we used, guidance on how to read a map, and commentary on how students are interpreting the ten categories of student engagement experiences. Additionally, we’re hoping to provide general takeaways from our data, such as what students get involved with during their first year at Penn State. Finally, Hailley and I will create a list of recommendations for the Student Engagement Network to consider on how to best support Penn State students during their student engagement journeys. I started working on this report this week and can’t wait to see it all come together!

impatient olsen twins GIF                                            [Impatient Olson twins GIF via GIPHY]

After gathering important results for the Student Engagement Network, we’ll focus more on manuscripts for publication. This will be a really exciting aspect of this project because we have so much data to choose from! We can write about our library results, the growth areas from the Student Engagement Network, the students who weren’t as involved during their first year, my perspective as an undergraduate research assistant, and more. Hailley and I are hoping to write for multiple journals to capture various perspectives of our project. I’m really excited for these next steps. Our project has come a long way, and I’m ready to tie it all together with some writing!busy daffy duck GIF                                                    [busy daffy duck GIF via GIPHY]

What are detailed maps?

arm38 Research Methods

Hi everyone, it’s Ally! I’m really excited to be updating you all again. Hailley and I have been busy finishing up interviews (only four more to go!) but I thought I could share a new step that we recently completed.

As we’ve been interviewing students, Hailley and I have allowed lots of creativity for students while they make their maps. Although each student hears the same set of directions, they all interpret our directions in different ways, resulting in maps that look drastically different from one another. This makes the maps a bit harder to read without context, however, we wanted students to fully express how they perceive their student engagement experiences without being limited by standardization.

Hailley and I have noticed two concepts that are most impacted by this map flexibility. First, we noticed that some students put down one sticker for one experience while other students put down multiple stickers for one experience, signaling continued involvement in one particular activity. Second, we found that some students will “nest” the different categories of student engagement by layering two different stickers on top of one another. Hailley and I have really enjoyed these map differences because it gives us strong insight into how students are thinking about student engagement. We think our semi-structured, exploratory style will pay off through rich data that can benefit the Penn State Student Engagement Network in future events and projects. However, we also recognize that these differences make it challenging for people to quickly interpret our student engagement journey maps. To make these maps easier to read, Hailley and I decided to create “detailed maps.” Essentially, we reviewed each map along with its corresponding interview and added additional information to a copy of the map. We then numbered each individual opportunity that students participated in so we can quickly pull data from a map.

The whole detailed map concept is a little confusing, so I’ve attached an example. Below is Brendan’s original map. Brendan is a senior in the College of Communications and was one of our first interviews in the fall.

Although Brendan included ten stickers, he did not complete ten individual student engagement experiences at Penn State. Below, I’ve attached Brendan’s detailed map. This will give you a stronger understanding of how many experiences Brendan was a part of.

This detailed map gives us lots of valuable information. First, it shows us that the four blue stickers represent the same organizational experience occurring each year. We can also see that the two green stickers are the same volunteering experience and the layered yellow and dark pink stickers are the same experience (a professional experience nested with a study-away experience). During his four years at Penn State, Brendan completed five student engagement experiences.

I hope this example gives you a better idea of what detailed maps are and why Hailley and I thought they were an important step in our research project. Now that the detailed maps are complete, we’re ready to code our qualitative data and finish up our last four interviews. We’ll definitely keep you posted. Thanks for reading!

 

 

 

Project Goals for 2020

arm38 Reflection, Undergraduate Research

Wrapping Up Fall 2019

Hi all, it’s Ally! I can’t believe the fall semester is already coming to an end. It really flew by! This was my last semester as an undergrad and I’m so happy Mapping the Student Engagement Journey was a part of it. I’ve already learned so much about research surrounding student engagement, libraries, and qualitative data. I can’t wait to see what the next few months will bring for Hailley and I as we continue our research. As I prepare for the spring 2020 semester, I have a clear to-do list for this project.

Kochstrasse™ cute illustration sweet job GIF

[“To Do” gif via Giphy]

Interviews

First, we need to finish up these student interviews! A few weeks ago, Hailley and I decided that we’re aiming to complete all 24 interviews by spring break, in March of 2020. I’ve definitely enjoyed interviewing students throughout the semester. It’s really interesting to learn how some student engagement journeys are similar to my own while others look entirely different. Right now we have eight interviews completed. Although students in our sample have had little availability in the past few weeks, I’m optimistic that students will have more free time to work with us at the beginning of next semester. I’m especially eager to hear from students in more STEM based colleges, such as engineering. I predict these student engagement journeys will look different from journeys in fields such as communications.

Qualitative Data Analysis

My next goal is to gain a stronger understanding of qualitative data analysis. This was one of my main learning objectives going into this project and I’m really eager to get to work on this in the spring. After we finish up our interviews, Hailley and I will be coding our data through NVivo. I’ve never worked with this software before so it’ll definitely be challenging at first. However, I’m eager to gain this new research skill and I’m sure with practice, the program will become more manageable.

I wanted to get a head start on learning NVivo so I’m ready to code in the spring when all our interviews are complete. I started this preparation process a few weeks ago when Hailley sent me some helpful NVivo tutorials. Additionally, we uploaded some practice material so I can get a feel for the program before next semester. So far, I’ve learned a fair amount of NVivo vocabulary (nodes, queries, classifications, etc.) I’m definitely getting more comfortable with the software but I know there’s still so much to learn! Hailley just received two books about NVivo from Penn State’s Interlibrary Loan and I’m hoping to use those books as a resource both this week and during the spring semester.

Presentations & Publications

Another goal of mine is to gain more presentation and publication experience in the spring. This semester, Hailley and I had the opportunity to present at Penn State’s Annual Student Engagement Summit, hosted by the Student Engagement Network. I loved sharing our progress and findings with the Penn State community and can’t wait for similar experiences next semester. Specifically, I’m eager to present our library related findings. Hailley and I did talk about libraries during our summit presentation, however, the main focus was on Penn State student engagement as a whole. In the spring, I’m hoping to gain experience presenting mainly on library research and the increased role libraries can play in student engagement opportunities. Hailley and I just submitted a presentation proposal yesterday for a library related presentation about student-centered research. Hopefully we’ll hear back soon and get to plan our presentation material in the upcoming months!

In addition to presentation opportunities, I can’t wait to do some writing about our results. Yesterday, Hailley and I brainstormed some academic journals that may be interested in our project results. We listed journals focusing on student engagement, library research, undergraduate research, and higher education as a whole. Next semester, we’ll probably start the publication process by writing about my role as an undergraduate research assistant. After we complete the 24 student interviews, we’ll start writing about our results. I think writing these results will be a really cool experience because there are so many different angles we can take with this project. For example, yesterday Hailley and I talked about writing an article strictly about students’ first two years of college and the student engagement opportunities they took advantage of during those two years. Overall, I think our presentations and publications will be incredible learning experiences and great opportunities to share our work.

See you in 2020!

In general, I’m feeling really optimistic about next semester. I’m already so proud of what Hailley and I have learned and accomplished from this project and I know it’ll only get better from here. I’m ready for a relaxing winter break but I also can’t wait to get started on my 2020 goals!

lets do it GIF by Denyse

[“Let’s do it” gif via Giphy]

 

Summit Presentation & Next Steps

arm38 Presentation & Publication, Undergraduate Research, Updates

Hi everyone, it’s Ally! Last week was an exciting time for Mapping the Student Engagement Journey. Hailley and I had gave our first presentation on this project at Penn State’s 2019 Student Engagement Summit. We started by explaining Hailley’s motivation to create this project and my motivation for becoming an Undergraduate Research Assistant. It was awesome to share our project with the Penn State community and express our enthusiasm about this research.

Hailley and I, right after our Student Engagement Summit presentation!

Presentation Takeaways

We had our audience brainstorm variations of each student engagement opportunity type. As a whole, our audience listed many examples of Undergraduate Research, Professional Experiences, and Peer Mentoring but listed less variations of Community-Based Learning and Self-Directed Student Engagement. These results were not surprising to me, as these lists aligned closely with the opportunities I’m most familiar with. This activity made me wonder how Penn State can better advertise student engagement opportunities that are less well-known. After all, some students may be more attracted to Self-Directed experiences than more structured experiences, such as clubs and organizations. Hailley and I talked about this more when we presented Harris’ map. During the interview process, Harris told us, “That was a big problem I had with Penn State…the way social life is structured here, it’s like ‘You have to join a club to have friends.'” I’m glad we could share this quote with faculty and staff. I hope this aspect of our presentation demonstrated that every Penn State student views student engagement differently, and that’s okay! Overall, I thought the Summit was a great place for our first presentation and I’m really looking forward to our next presentation opportunity. 

What’s Next?

At this point, we have six of 24 student interviews completed so we’re one fourth of the way through! Our goal is to have 12 interviews done before winter break. To accomplish this, we’re planning on emailing students from all the remaining colleges that we need students from. Sending all these emails at once may be tricky to organize. However, we think it’ll be a helpful way to recruit six more students before winter break. Next semester, we hope to finish the other 12 interviews before spring break. After that, we’ll have lots of coding, data analysis, and writing to do! I’m definitely enjoying the interview process but I’m also really exciting for the next steps. I have some experience with qualitative data analysis but I know this project will help me take my skills to the next level. I’m also really eager to see how all 24 interviews connect to one another and what overall takeaways Hailley and I will find for Penn State and other institutions. For now, Hailley and I have more recruitment emails to send out in the upcoming weeks. I can’t wait to get the next six interviews started!

Thoughts on Penn State Faculty Senate Reports

arm38 Reflection , ,

Penn State’s Progress

Hi everyone, it’s Ally! A couple weeks ago, Hailley suggested I review various Faculty Senate Reports  to learn more about Penn State’s progress with student engagement. These reports included the 2012 Task Force on Internships, the 2013 Task Force on Undergraduate Research, and timeline of Engaged Scholarship Initiatives from 2012 to 2017. I noticed three themes among these reports – a broadened student engagement definition, decentralization, and bench-marking.

Reoccurring Themes

My main takeaway from these reports is that Penn State has greatly broadened its student engagement definition over the past decade. Ten years ago, undergraduate research and internships seemed to be the focus of student engagement opportunities. Although these experiences are valuable, they do not capture other engagement experiences such as self-directed student engagement. Just four years ago, the 2015 Engaged Scholarship Update had developed only seven of the ten current student engagement categories. Overall, I think these reports demonstrate that Penn State has successfully improved upon their student engagement definition, expanding “what counts” as student engagement.  

Well Done Congratulations GIF by America's Got Talent

[Well Done Gif via GIPHY]

I also noticed decentralization as a common theme, especially with the task forces on internships and undergraduate research. This barrier was not surprising to me, given the large size of this university. These reports expressed a need for one, centralized location where students can look for internship and research opportunities.  From my student perspective, I think Penn State has followed through with this goal by creating the Student Engagement Network and will continue to grow in this area as the Student Engagement Portal is developed. However, I think Penn State still has room for improvement regarding the centralization of student engagement opportunities. Although the Student Engagement Network exists, I think new Penn Staters still feel overwhelmed and confused about where to look for opportunities. Additionally, individual departments offer opportunities through their own emails and websites. Although these department-specific announcements are useful for students, this independence also inhibits the centralization Penn State is striving to achieve. Some potential solutions to these setbacks could be introducing the Student Engagement Network at New Student Orientation and encouraging each college to get more involved with the network and upcoming portal.   

Bench-marking is also a theme throughout these reports. In almost every report, another university is mentioned for their successful student engagement practices. Big Ten universities were cited particularly often. I view this as a positive practice, as it helps Penn State to improve and model our programs after schools of similar sizes and cultures.  Bench-marking was especially evident with the Undergraduate Research Taskforce. This report suggests that centralization will only put Penn State “in the middle of the pack.” For Penn State to equal or exceed “Public Ivies,” undergraduate research must become part of the university culture through efforts such as increased grants and faculty recognition for undergraduate research.  I think this attitude should be applied to student engagement as a whole, as centralization alone is not enough for Penn State to make a name for itself in student engagement.  

Takeaways

These Faculty Senate reports assured me that our research project aligns with Penn State’s long-term goals for student engagement, such as centralization. Our project can also inform the university about whether current students know about and are using the student engagement resources in place. Overall, I think Hailley and I are on the right track!

Amy Poehler GIF

[High Five Gif via GIPHY]

Let the interviews begin!

arm38 Uncategorized
Hi all, it’s Ally. These past few weeks have been really exciting for Hailley and I as we progress farther with this project. Interviews have officially started! Our first interview was last week with an enthusiastic student from the College of Health and Human Development. This randomly selected student is actually a good friend of mine! Penn State really is a small world once you’ve been here for a while. 

Interview Reflections

I took the lead on the interview questions and I think the process went well overall. Our questions seem to flow really nicely and elicit the information we’re looking for from students. During these next few interviews, I’m hoping to improve my probing skills by asking more intentional, off-script questions. Although our scripted questions are important for data collection, I think it’s also crucial to talk with students about their unique experiences that may not fall into our prepared question categories. For example, last week’s interviewee was a transfer student from another university. Because of this unique characteristic, I adjusted some of our questions to investigate how transfer students may experience student engagement at University Park. I’m hoping to apply this spontaneous probing to my upcoming interview this Wednesday. 
Behind the scenes of last week’s interview! We ordered tons of stickers so we’re prepared for the next few weeks.
I’ve already noticed intriguing patterns in the interviews I’ve led, which is really exciting. Many students seem to take on student engagement opportunities for practical reasons such as resume building or hands-on experience in their fields. However, students also seem to have social motives like meeting new friends or making this large university feel smaller. Hailley and I are eager to see how these motivations differ between colleges. I predict that some colleges may promote exploratory student engagement while others strongly emphasize career-related opportunities. This difference among colleges could have really interesting implications for how students present their engagement opportunities and market themselves to employers. 

This Week’s Plan

This week, Hailley and I have two interviews to complete. We’re also emailing students from our sample to schedule more interviews for October. On top of scheduling, Hailley and are preparing our presentation for the Penn State Student Engagement Summit. I’m so eager to share our research with the Penn State community. Hopefully we’ll gain some helpful feedback and new supporters for this project. We definitely have busy but exciting weeks ahead of us! 
happy full house GIF

Practice Interviews & Map Updates

arm38 Uncategorized
Hi everyone, it’s Ally with some research updates! Now that we have our sample, Hailley and I have been revising our interview questions and practicing. We’ve conducted two practice interviews so far. First, Hailley interviewed me and tested her questions out for the first time. After removing some repetitive questions and adding a few wrap-up questions, we interviewed an intern from the Student Engagement Network. This Friday I’ll take the lead on two practice interviews! I’m definitely feeling more confident with our process and can’t wait to give it a shot. 

New Map Ideas

In preparation for Friday, I’m thinking more critically about what we want these maps to look like. During our practice interviews, Hailley and I noticed that some aspects of student engagement weren’t captured by the maps (length of involvement, leadership roles, connections between experiences, etc). Yesterday I created a new map of my student engagement journey that includes some of these pieces. I followed the same color key that Hailley and I established last week. However, I added timelines on the bottom to show how long I was involved in ongoing experiences, such as undergraduate research and organizations. I also added blue circles to indicate leadership roles and pencil arrows to indicate connections between experiences. 
Here’s my practice map from yesterday!
I’m still deciding how I feel about this new map. I think it provides more information about my engagement experiences that went undocumented in my original map. However, the new lines/circles definitely make the map more crowded. Hailley and I are also back and forth about showing an example map to students during interviews. On one hand, this will standardize the maps and help students communicate the information we’re looking for. However, this would also limit the student’s creativity. The differences in maps could be really intriguing to analyze. For example, I put stickers near one another on my map while the Student Engagement Intern layered her stickers on top of one another. I’m eager to see the creative differences that emerge in this week’s practice interviews.

Big Things Ahead!

Hailley and I are planning to check for similarities/differences in the maps from this week’s practices interviews and then decide whether we need an example map for standardization.  After we make these decisions and practice more interviews we’ll be ready to contact our sample. In the meantime, I’m reading some chapters on creating a code book for qualitative data. This will be an important step for this project so I’m excited to learn  more about the process. Overall, I’m really looking forward to seeing our code book come together and leading interviews this Friday. I’ll definitely post some updates next week!
map GIF by Topshelf Records
   [Map Gif via Giphy]

New Research Assistant on the Block

arm38 Undergraduate Research, Updates
Hi everyone! It’s Ally, the new Undergraduate Research Assistant with Mapping the Student Engagement Journey. This is my full first week working with Hailley on this project and I’m already so excited to see where it takes us. I’m senior year at University Park and the Penn State nostalgia is already setting in. This summer, I knew I wanted to do something special with my last year on campus. When I saw Hailley’s post for a Research Assistant, I knew this position and project had the exciting potential I was looking for. 

My Student Engagement Journey

This position also stood out to me because of my personal student engagement journey. I graduated from a Catholic, all-girls high school with about 130 women, so Penn State was definitely an adjustment for me. Everything seemed so big and busy all the time! I’m also not from a Penn State family so campus, downtown, and Beaver Stadium were all brand new and larger-than-life. Looking back on the past three years, student engagement is definitely why Penn State went from an overwhelming unknown to my second home. Freshman year, I jumped right into engagement opportunities by joining Lion Scouts, a THON committee, and a sorority. Sophomore year, I became a Research Assistant with the Psychology Department and went on my first service trip with Alternative Breaks. Junior year, I was elected onto my sorority’s Executive Board and became a Site Leader with Alternative Breaks. Now it’s senior year and my student engagement journey is coming full-circle. I now have the opportunity to think critically about my engagement experiences. Why did I chose those specific activities? Did one activity lead me to the next? What Penn State resources helped me navigate this process?

Looking Forward

I’m eager to reflect on my own student engagement journey, however, I’m even more excited to hear from other Penn Staters. In a few weeks, Hailley and I will interview current undergraduate students and have them map out their student engagement journey. I’m definitely looking forward to these interviews and can’t wait to learn more about the qualitative data analysis that follows. I think our findings will greatly inform Penn State leaders about how students experience engagement opportunities and what the university can do to support students along the way. I think this research could have a positive, long-term impact on Penn State’s student retention as well. After all, my connections to organizations, research, and service is what kept me at Penn State all four years. Thanks so much to Hailley and Library Learning Services for welcoming me this week. I’m so grateful to be a part of this project!
Ready Lets Go GIF

[ Gif of Tina Fey saying ‘Let’s Do This.’ via Giphy ]